LUKE 11:27-28 THE MOST BLESSED LIFE2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 11:27-28 The Most Blessed Life

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Well, this morning as we look at our portion today, Luke 11, verses 27 and 28, I want to talk with you about the most blessed life.

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The most blessed life. As we see this account here, as Jesus is talking to this woman who's shouting from the crowd, kind of a heckler, but in a good sense, she's overwhelmed, she's joyful, and so she shouts out from the crowd, and Jesus's response gives us great insight into

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to obtaining, to how to have the most blessed life. Now the word blessed is a word that you and I, we kind of throw out quite frequently as believers, as people around church. How's your day? Oh, I'm blessed. God bless you. You know, we use that word quite frequently. And often the word is defined as, oh, how happy. And so when you hear the beatitudes of Jesus, you know, blessed are the meek and so on and so forth, you know, it's the idea of,

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of, oh, how happy is the person who is this way. And that certainly is an element of this word to be blessed. But there's a much fuller and deeper meaning that we could consider in this word blessed. I'm not going to get into a lot of the details, but basically the way I would summarize it is to be fully satisfied.

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That it's not just a kind of a highlight of your day. You know, I was happy, you know, for a couple hours. I enjoyed a couple moments. And so I was blessed. But the idea of being blessed is the idea of being fully satisfied.

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that there's fulfillment that you're experiencing, that there's much deeper and much longer lasting than just moments of joy or moments of happiness. And so as we talk about the most blessed life, I would ask you this morning, are you blessed? Are you the most blessed that you could be? Are you experiencing the fulfillment and full satisfaction that God has for you?

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Well, as we begin to consider the most blessed life, we begin, first of all, by looking at Mary. And we understand here from verse 27 that Mary was blessed. I think that's pretty clear to see. Look with me again at verse 27. It says, And it happened as he spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you.

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So Jesus here, he's been working miracles. We saw in just the previous verses, he cast out a demon from a man and previously he was mute because of the demon. And then he's able to talk and the crowds are amazed. They're just overjoyed. They're so excited. They're so excited.

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Some of them are wondering about where he gets this power. In fact, it says the religious leaders were accusing Jesus in their minds that they were saying that Jesus is powered by Satan and that's how he's able to cast out the demons. And we dealt with that last week. But regardless of some of the religious leaders who objected to the life and ministry of Jesus, in general, the crowds were excited. They're just overwhelmed. They can't believe it.

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Jesus is going to many different places. They're seeing miracles that they've never seen of, that they've never heard of before.

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People who are blind, having their sight restored. People who are lame from birth, being able to walk. I mean, these radical miracles are taking place through Jesus. And on top of that, he's sharing these different teachings. And there's just this great truth coming out from him. And it says that the people heard him gladly. The multitudes, you know, travel far distances to go to be with him. It's just an amazing thing that's happening. And I think it's important for us to know that.

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And so here's this woman in the crowd. We don't know anything about her. It just says a certain woman. She's there in the crowd. She's hearing Jesus teach. She's watching Jesus work miracles. And she is overcome with emotion. She is overwhelmed by what she's experiencing.

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And so she exclaimed, she shouts out, blessed is your mom, Jesus. Your mom must be so blessed. Now, this woman knows nothing of the cross because up to this point in Jesus's ministry, he hasn't experienced the cross. There has been some contention with the religious leaders that happened early on and throughout Jesus's ministry, but there wasn't this crucifixion yet.

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And so she's here in the midst of this. She's seeing all these things. She's just overwhelmed. She's amazed. And so it prompts her to shout out in the middle of the crowd, to just exclaim really loudly, "'Blessed is your mom. Your mom must be so blessed.'" She says, "'Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nurse you.'" Now, she's talking about Mary who gave birth to Jesus. And Mary certainly was blessed.

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Just like I would say in general, moms are proud of their kids. They're blessed to have kids. How blessed was Mary at this point? As this woman exclaims, your mom must be so blessed. How blessed was she? Again, she, like this woman, really doesn't know about the cross.

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being the mom of Jesus is going to require some great endurance because he's going to be put to death and completely rejected. And so she's about to go through in the near future a really difficult time as her son is taken, tried unjustly, and put to death even though he never once sinned. But she doesn't know any of that yet. What she sees now is the work that is going on. She got to be part of

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Jesus growing up. She got to watch him develop into a man. She got to watch him step out into the ministry and begin the ministry and begin announcing to the public that the kingdom of God is at hand. She got to be part there as he's teaching, as he's working miracles. How blessed was Mary at this point? Can you imagine what she must have been experiencing?

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Well, as I was considering this, I thought, you know, I really can't understand what Mary was experiencing. Not having children makes it a little bit difficult. How do I capture the blessing that that is? And so I thought I should refer to some experts. And so I talked to some moms that we know.

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And ask them, what do you think? What's it like being a mom? How blessed are you when you see these amazing things happening with your kids? And so I want to read to you some of the replies, some of the answers from moms that you know that had some great insight so we could understand a little bit better what Mary might have been feeling.

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Well, first of all, Joanna replied and she said, you know, it's pretty amazing to see my kids grown up and following the Lord on their own, having their own walk with him.

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She said, I've always told them, you can do whatever you want in life. It doesn't matter to me, but as long as you follow Jesus and live for him. That is what I care about and that is what is successful. And so she's blown away as she sees her kids now having their own relationship, their own walk with the Lord, and they're responding to God and his work in their life.

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Well, Patty also responded and she shared a couple things. She said, it's a wonderful feeling to be a mom. It's an overwhelming rush. Even goosebumps when you feel that pride. You can literally feel your heart swell.

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Whether your kid is serving God in another country, leading people into the presence of the Lord by means of worship or prayer, teaching small children about God, or leading the children's ministry and raising their own children to know Jesus, it leaves you with a full heart. You beam and you think everyone else sees your kids the same way that they are the best. She says it means that even though you didn't feel qualified enough to raise your kids well,

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When you see how well they did turn out, you feel so blessed. You wonder why God would bless you so much. Janine responded and she said, Mary must have felt so very blessed. I was blessed when Nathaniel told me how they pray before the game and how he was bold to wear Joshua 1-9 on his face for the game and blessed to see a Bible in his car all on his own, not me nagging him to do it.

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She goes on to say, wow.

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Watching and hearing Nathaniel's recent success in football was a treat to hear. How happy he felt and confident. And then to have him praising God in the end, texting me, saying, I love you, Mom. God is great. And she ends saying, priceless, with quite a few exclamation points. Well, finally, my cousin Julie also is a mom, and she had some great insight. She said, you know, mothering is a very sacrificial work. You learn it from day one.

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No longer are you responsible for yourself, but you are now responsible for another being, and they demand everything in you. Sleep, patience, sustenance from your very body. They want your food, your space, all of your life they invade. When they do something that you can be proud of, you know how very weak you are.

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How you fall short as a mother so many times and yet it seems that your hard work and sacrifice is maybe not going in vain. You raise up a child. You help them along. You bear with them in trials. And you know their every weakness and strength. You hope for their best. You work towards their best. You learn to fight for them and help them in deep and stirring ways. When that child of yours goes on a mission trip,

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reaches out and cares in compassion for another human, works hard for something and accomplishes it, you are prouder and happier than even if it happened to yourself. And then she ended with this. I thought it was so great. She said, you would rather have ten good things happen for them than one good thing for you. For me, this brought a little bit of insight into the hearts of a mom and perhaps something of what Mary was experiencing.

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She truly was blessed. She got to be part of Jesus as he grew up. And as she watched him in this public ministry, watched the lives be touched and the lives changed, she must have been blessed. Overwhelmed. I think for me, the closest way I can relate to this is when I think about Kim and how just God has done such an amazing work in her and through her.

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And I'm not looking at her so that I don't get a little emotional here. But even just hearing her pray this morning, you know, coming through the speakers, her voice, praying to God, watching what God's been doing, just, it's hard to describe. These moms described it way better than I could, and I'm sure it's not quite the same, but it's the closest I can come to. I was watching Carlos during worship.

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from the back carlos right here he's in the front row he's got his camera up like this i'm like what is he doing and i go oh he's recording aram she had that kind of solo part of the song she was seeing him boldly for the lord and he's like i want to capture that he's proud blown away overwhelmed you know there's many things you you don't have to rely on you know me telling you these things there's many things that that you are blessed by in this life

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Many things that just cause you to be overwhelmed, just so satisfied, just blessed. Mary certainly was blessed. But here's the point. Jesus now responds to this woman. Yes, Mary was blessed. But the thing that you need to know as we look at verse 28 now, the second point for this morning is you can be more blessed.

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Imagine that for just a moment. Mary, we see, we're getting a little glimpse of how blessed she must have been, how completely overwhelming that must have been for her. But Jesus says something totally radical. Verse 28, but he said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Do you hear what Jesus says here? He says, more than that.

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This is absolutely amazing. This is radical. This is life-changing stuff right here. Jesus says, more than that. This lady cries out because she's overwhelmed in the crowd. Oh, your mom is so blessed. And Jesus says, he doesn't discount it. He doesn't say, oh, no, no, she's not. Be quiet. He doesn't discount it. He doesn't disagree with it. He just says, you can be more blessed. Yeah, she's blessed. She's overwhelmed. She's

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It must be amazing for her. But you can be more blessed. This is really amazing. Think about that. You can be more blessed than the parent of the best kid in the whole world, in all of humanity. Because that's what Jesus was. He was sinless and perfect. George was reminding me after the service, a lot of parents think their kids are angels. Oh no, my kid would never do that, right? Right?

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Jesus really was perfect. He really would never do that. You could be more blessed than the parents of the best kid in all of history. You could be more blessed than the best teacher in all history because Jesus was. You could be more blessed than the best miracle worker

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Because Jesus was. I mean, whatever way you want to look at it, Mary was blessed, but you can be more so. He says more than that. I was thinking about Billy Graham's mom. Like what must she be experiencing? Well, she's probably with the Lord already a long time ago, but what must she have experienced? How blessed was she to be able to see God use her son? Or maybe Pastor Chuck's mom.

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Or you could think of it, you know, outside of the spiritual realm. Even moms are blessed by their kids who succeed in any avenue, politics or show business or, you know, in the business world, whatever the case may be. And yet, as great joy that might bring, as much fulfillment as that might bring, great blessing, Jesus says more than that. Do you believe this? Yes.

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That's the real challenge today. Do you believe this? Do you believe what Jesus says here? Again, the word blessed. Oh, how happy. Or to be fully satisfied. Jesus says, you can be fully satisfied even more so than Mary, the mother of Jesus. Now, this is pretty good news.

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Because if the way to be blessed, if the way to experience the most blessed life is to give birth to the Messiah, I have no chance at all. First of all, the Messiah has already been born. Secondly, I'm not giving birth to nobody. It just can't happen, right? So,

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If that's the way to be the most blessed, I will never be the most blessed. Or if the way to be the most blessed is to have kids just in general, period, I can't be the most blessed today because as of yet, I don't have any children. So I can't be the most blessed. Jesus says though, that's not the way to be the most blessed. And what he says, what he declares, listen, this is important.

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The way that he gives us to experience the most blessed life is something that is achievable, that is attainable, that is accomplishable by any person who ever walks the face of the earth. This is available to anybody. Any one of us can experience the most blessed life. What he gives us as the most blessed life, as the path to attain these great blessings are things that you and I can do.

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And so you can be blessed. You can have the most blessed life. Do you believe this? Do you really believe this? Well, Jesus gives us two things. He says more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. So two things, hear the word of God and keep the word of God.

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These are the things that Jesus says, if you do this, you will be more blessed than my mom. You will have the most blessed life if you will hear God and keep his word. So do you keep, or sorry, do you hear the word of God? Do you hear the word of God? That's the first part of what Jesus said. Now, of course, you might say, well, yes, I do because I'm here at church. Hello, I'm listening.

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You're talking the Word of God. You're reading it. You're speaking it. I'm hearing it. I hear the Word of God. And I would agree with you in that. That's great. You're here today hearing the Word of God. That's wonderful. I would also ask you to consider though, is all listening hearing? So you're listening, but are you hearing? Now any wife can tell you that all listening is not hearing.

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Maybe even some husbands can tell you, yeah, all listening is not hearing. Parents for sure can tell you all listening is not hearing. Goes in one ear, out the other ear, right? Just straight through. They heard the audible sounds, but nothing registered. Nothing clicked. It didn't change anything. It didn't register. So listening is hearing, but not all listening.

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And it reminded me of what Pastor Dylan used to encourage us in. He said, you need to always be ready when you're in a Bible study. You need to always have a pen and paper so that you're always ready to write down what God speaks. Now you can kind of update it. Dylan's a little bit old school. So, you know, if you record your thoughts digitally, that's fine too. Use your thumbs, right? That's fine. It's not about the instrument. But the point is,

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If you're not ready to write down, to capture what God speaks, then you're not really ready to receive. And I would suggest to you, you're probably not listening. You're probably really not hearing. If you're not here today, ready to hear from God, expecting, God, you're going to speak to me. You're going to give me instruction for the day, for the week. If you're not ready to capture those things that God speaks to you, I would suggest to you, I would challenge you, you're probably not hearing the word of God. You're not ready to receive. You're not ready to receive.

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And so, yeah, great. Good job you're here. Good job you go to church, you go to Bible studies. But is it really taking root? Is it impacting you as you listen, as people share the Word of God? Do you hear the Word? I would also go on to say, though, that hearing the Word of God needs to extend beyond church. It needs to include more than just coming to a Bible study or coming to a service.

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You on your own need to hear the word of God. And reading is hearing. For you to open up the Bible and read it for yourself, that's appropriate. That is hearing the word of God as long as you are hearing it. Because again, all reading is not hearing. That's why they have comprehension tests in school. Remember those? Oh, those are terrible. Read this paragraph and then take this test on it.

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Do you remember? Did you comprehend? Did you really understand what you were reading? Did you really grasp hold of those thoughts? When we read the Word of God, it's very easy for us to just make it like a to-do list, right? We just kind of check it off and we go our way, but we never took time to allow it to take root. We never took time to allow it to register for it to mean something to us. This morning, I want to encourage you. You need to be hearing God's Word on your own.

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You need to be spending time with God in His Word and not just getting through a chapter or getting through a passage, but taking the time to allow God to really speak to you, for you to really grasp hold of the thoughts and the meaning of the things that you are reading. What is your devotional life like? What is your Bible reading plan? Do you have a plan to read through the Bible? You need to.

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I would challenge you today. You need to have a plan to read all the books of the Bible. If you've been a believer for a while and you've not read through the whole Bible, I would suggest to you, I'm sorry if this offends, but you're not hearing God's Word. You're not hearing God's Word if you're not taking it all in. A.W. Tozer put it this way. He said, "...nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian."

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Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian. We often will read our favorite parts, the parts we're most comfortable with, but we need to be hearing God's word, the whole counsel of it, not just our favorite parts. This is one of the reasons why we are emphasizing and encouraging and focusing on the Bible in three years.

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We began in January. We started in Genesis. And we're working our way day by day, book by book, from Genesis all the way through Revelation over the next two and a half years now. Because you, as a believer, well, you cannot be the most blessed. You cannot experience the full blessings of what God has for you if you're not partaking of the whole counsel of God's Word.

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And so what's your plan? Now, if you have another plan and God has another devotional plan for you, that's fine. He's your Lord. I'm not your Lord. But if you have no plan or you're just kind of wandering aimlessly, let me encourage you. Join with us. Or maybe you did join but you kind of fell off the wagon a little bit. You're just like, oh, I've missed a couple days and I just haven't been doing it. Get back to hearing the Word of God and join with us as we go day by day. There's reading schedules on the back. There's plenty of resources on the website.

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It's important for you. You need to be in His Word. And it's kind of a good opportunity. Tomorrow we begin the book of 1 Kings. So we'll be in chapter 1 tomorrow. And so you can just clean start. Join with us. Begin to hear the Word of God once again. Allow Him to speak into your heart. Again, don't just check it off the list and read through the chapter. But take time. Let it register. Hear God's Word.

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I would challenge you to consider what the psalmist says in Psalm 19, verse 9 and 10, and ask yourself, does this resonate? Does this match my heart towards God's word? The psalmist says in Psalm 19, 9, he says, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

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Do you have a sweet tooth? Do you have those cravings for those sweet desserts? Do you also have that kind of craving for the Word of God? That's a good indication of whether or not you're hearing His Word. He says, there are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold. So if I could give you the choice today, here's the keys to Fort Knox, have all the gold you want, or here's the scriptures,

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Which would you desire? Which would you choose? Now, the kind of clever, smart-aleck person would say, well, I'd choose Fort Knox because then I could buy 100,000 Bibles. But no, no, don't miss the point. Much fine gold? Do you desire the Scriptures more than that? Do you desire to hear God's Word more than that?

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Jesus said, if you want the most blessed life, here's how. First of all, hear God's word. Now, secondly, the second part is just as important. He says, keep it. Keep God's word. Do you keep the word of God? This word keep, it has kind of two components or two ideas to it. It's the idea of preserve and observe.

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So keeping as in like keeping guard, watching over it, making sure it stays the same, making sure it's protected. And the word of God has been kept for us. It's been preserved. We have before us a Bible that we can rely upon and trust in and we can know this is the word of God. It has been preserved, but it also needs to be observed. That is, you have to put it into practice.

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This is not a new thing. We've been seeing this as Jesus has been teaching. You might remember back in Luke chapter 8, if you've been going with us on Sunday mornings through Luke,

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where Jesus said, my mother and my brother are these who hear the word of God and do it. You see that combination? They hear the word and they do the word. We also saw Jesus give the parable of the wise and the foolish builder. Remember that? Jesus says, there's a wise guy and he builds his house upon a rock. And you know who he's like? He's like the one who hears my words and does them.

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He's hearing and he's doing. But then there's a foolish guy. He built his house upon the sand. He's the guy who hears my words but does not do them. And you see, there's a reality. There are those who don't hear God's word. Hopefully that's not you. There are those who hear God's word. They value it. They treasure it. They cherish God's word. Oh yes, God's word carries much weight.

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It's very important. Yeah, we highly esteem the Word of God. But there are those who highly esteem the Word of God. They value it, but they don't practice it. And they're missing out. Jesus says, that's building your house upon the sand. No foundation. It will collapse. But then there are those who hear God's Word, they value it,

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They cherish it. They spend time with God. And then they put it into practice. They build their lives upon it. This is what Jesus has been teaching. And it's what he declares today. Keep God's word. Preserve it and observe it. I was thinking about it in these terms. Think about a refrigerator. Refrigerators...

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are amazing, right? They're totally awesome. If you had to pick one appliance to keep from your kitchen, for me, I would pick the refrigerator. I know you probably thought I'd pick the microwave, but what good's a microwave if you don't got food to put in there, right? So keep the refrigerator. That's where the food goes. The refrigerator is great for preserving, right? It keeps the food. It protects it. It preserves it. But if you don't eat the food, then it's pretty pointless, right?

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Yesterday, Kim was a little bit hungry, so she made herself a bowl of cereal. It was a new cereal. We hadn't tried it before. And so she said, oh, you should try this. This is really good. It tastes like caramel. I don't know what kind it was. You can ask her later. But she gives me a bite, and I say, oh, that is good. It tastes like caramel. Too sweet for me, but she enjoyed the bowl of cereal. Then later on yesterday, we went to go make dinner. I pulled the milk out of the fridge, and I noticed, hey, this expired on Wednesday. It's like four days ago.

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It's a major rule in my life not to drink expired milk, in case you didn't know. If it's the day before, I get nervous. This is four days later. But we figured, well, we already ate it. We didn't notice anything. Might as well have it for dinner too. So we had it for dinner too. Excuse me, I got to go to the restroom. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. Here's the point. The milk was fine. It was good. The refrigerator preserved it.

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But we drank, you know, this much of the milk. And so it did a great job preserving it, but we didn't eat it. It was really for nothing. It was worthless. In the same way, there are those who are within the church, there are believers who are starving, but they have a fridge that is fully stocked. You see, the scriptures have for you all that is necessary for life and godliness because it's found in the knowledge of God. Peter tells us.

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Our fridge is fully stocked. We have everything that we need in the scriptures. And yet so many believers are starving. They don't have direction. They don't have insight. They don't have... They're missing so much. They're not the most blessed because the truths of God's word are staying in there. They're being preserved. Your Bible's in great condition, but your life's a mess. You need to turn that around. Let your Bible be a mess.

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Maturity comes, as a believer, the author of Hebrews tells us, from much use of the word of God. And so many people are missing out on the most blessed life. We've got a fully stocked fridge, but we're starving. Remember what James said in James 1.22? He says, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. So again, you see, there's this potential, there's this possibility where we just hear the word.

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You say, oh yeah, I hear the Word of God. I can quote the Scriptures. I read the Bible. But the real question now is, do you do it? Are you a doer of the Word? Are you living it out? Is it being put into practice in your life? One commentator named Poole says, the blessed and the unblessed may go to church together. Think about that. Here in this room today, we have those who are blessed. We also have those who are unblessed, not blessed, missing out,

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On the blessings that God has for you. He says, they may go to church together and hear the word together. But the blessing is to those that hear the word of God and keep it. You see, both parts are necessary. Hearing the word of God is great. Good job getting to church on Sunday. Good job reading the Bible throughout the week. Good job. But you have to keep it in order to experience the most blessed life. You have to keep it. You know, I think we misunderstand God.

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what the scriptures are for many times. The Bible is not meant to be an occasional contribution to your life. You know, like occasionally you call up your mom and you say, hey mom, I have this situation. What do you think about this? She says, oh, here's some good advice. Okay, thanks mom, love you. Occasionally you get some insight. Occasionally you get some instruction. And so in that moment of need, all right, here, I got what I needed.

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That picture would kind of be like, you know, the person who stops to ask for directions because they got lost. The Bible is not that. When you get lost, you know, just open up the scriptures and God will help you get back on track, get back to the route that you're supposed to be on. A lot of times that's how we approach the scriptures, right?

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But a better idea of what the scriptures are to be in our lives is not it's the person you ask for directions when you get lost, but it's the GPS that gives you the turn-by-turn directions so that you can get to your destination.

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But it's not just in a moment of crisis you turn to the Lord and try to hear God's voice and get his instruction. Or you have this decision and so I got to make this decision. Let me turn open the scriptures and see what I can find. See what insight I can have. And God may minister to you. He may speak to you in those times. But that's not how the Bible is intended. It's meant to be that we're to live by the scriptures.

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Turn by turn, moment by moment, that it's the Bible that dictates, that declares. I would even suggest to you, it's the rails of the track that we're to run on so that it directs us exactly where we need to go, that we are submitted to the Word of God. We don't have the choice to just go here or go there and then when we get stuck, we call out to God. That's not the way that God intended. That's not the way to experience the most blessed life. Your life is to be based on the Bible.

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That is that everything you do is a direct result of this is what God wants me to do. So many times we have it backwards. This is what I want to do. And where's the support for that? Let me find the verse that tells me I could do this. Or this is what I want to do. God, please bless me in this thing that I want to do. That's backwards. Hear God's word and keep it. That is hear from God and then do what he says.

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That's the way to experience the most blessed life. Not, God bless me as I go do what I want to do. But God, what do you want me to do? Okay, I'm going to do what you told me to do. Jesus says, that's how to experience the most blessed life. Hearing God's word and keeping it. Hearing from God and then doing what he instructs you to do. Jesus says, more than that. Do you remember how blessed Mary was?

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Do you remember how amazing it must have been for her? How incredible, just unspeakable blessing. As maybe you've experienced those unspeakable blessings. But Jesus says more than that. There's greater blessing than that. There's much more for your life than that. The psalmist said in Psalm 119 too, Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart.

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scripture tells us over and over I could read a hundred more verses there's blessing for those who will hear God's word and do it but I'm not going to quote all those hundred verses because I don't think the issue is whether or not we know this is in the Bible the issue really is that what you got to consider is do I really believe this do I really believe this what would it look like if a person actually believed what Jesus says here

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I suggest to you that a person who actually believes that the most blessed life is achieved by hearing God's word and keeping it, that person would hear joyfully the word of God. They would hear with great joy, not looking at their watch and wondering, when is this going to be over? How quickly can I get through this devotion?

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I've got other stuff to do. That joyfully, purposefully, this person would hear the word of God and they would be excited to study his word.

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Because they understand, because they believe what Jesus said, to hear God's word and to keep it is to experience the most blessed life. And so the result would be this person would be diligent in the study of the scriptures and faithful in the study of the scriptures. They would search for application, not just getting through it, but looking for that opportunity. How can I put this into practice? How can I make this happen in my life? How can I live this out for the Lord?

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That there would be an earnestness, a passion for the Word of God and doing what it says. Does that describe you? Again, it goes back to not do you know this, but do you believe this? Do you believe what Jesus has said? That's the way to experience the most blessed life.

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There's lots of things that people turn to to try to experience that blessing. Again, to be blessed, it means to be fully satisfied. And there's lots of things that people turn to, they're convinced, this will satisfy me. They look at their career, they look at success. Single people are convinced they'll be fully satisfied if they had someone else, if they had someone to love, someone to love them.

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spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever the case. Some people look to entertainment and fun and pleasure. And yeah, if I only just had more fun in my life or a good hobby, then I'll be fully satisfied. I really like the example of Solomon in the Old Testament in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon was the king of Israel. He basically had unlimited resources and he sets out on a journey. He says, look, I want to find meaning and fulfillment in life.

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But he sets basic parameters. He says, I'm only looking under the sun. I'm not considering God in this. I'm going to try to find in this life meaning and fulfillment. I'm going to try to be satisfied. And the book of Ecclesiastes is his journey. He tries education. He gets wisdom. He gets knowledge. He comes to the end of that and he says, I've got all this wisdom. I've got all this knowledge and I'm still not satisfied. He says, vanity of vanities. It's all vanity. It's useless. It's worthless.

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I grabbed hold of these things and it's just like, just like bubbles. They just pop. They're just gone. Education, that's not where it's at. I didn't find fulfillment there. I'm not satisfied from that. So he tries pleasure. Any girl he wanted, he could get. Any party he wanted to throw, he could throw. Any fun thing he wanted to do, he could do. Entertainment he could hire, he hired.

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He came to the end of that and he said, vanity of vanities, it's all vanities. So he tried great accomplishments. Let me build impressive buildings. Let me build huge gardens. Let me accomplish great things. He accomplishes great things. He says, vanity of vanities, it's all vanity. This doesn't satisfy me. It doesn't fulfill me. So he goes on to try hard work. I'm going to stop, you know, just directing everybody. If I involve myself in a hard day's work and I can be proud of what I've done that day, then I'll be satisfied. Then I'll be fulfilled.

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Vanity of vanities, it's all vanity. So let me try popularity. Let people know my name. Let me get my name out there. Vanity of vanities, it's all vanity. Let me try prosperity. If I get more wealth and more riches. He goes through this journey. He's trying all these things that we still try today. I don't know why we get tricked into it still. But we do. And people in the church get deceived and caught up and think this is

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Is it? This is what I need. Then I'll be satisfied. Then I'll be fulfilled. Solomon comes to the end of his journey in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and he comes to the same conclusion as Jesus. Listen to what Solomon says. He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Looking back at all the different things I've tried, he says, here's the conclusion. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all. Same thing as Jesus.

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He says, fear God and keep his commandments. Jesus said, hear God's word and keep it. This is man's all. This is the way to experience the most blessed life. Mary was blessed, that's for sure. And you can experience many blessings in life. I would not dispute that. Even as one who rejects Jesus Christ, you can experience much joy and blessing.

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You can experience great joys as a parent. You can experience great joys, success in business. You can experience joys, but it's not the best. It's not the most blessed. It's not the fullness of what God has for you and wants for you. That is only found hearing God's word and obeying it. The worship team is going to come up and close us in a song. And as they do, I want to encourage you

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to once again consider, do you believe what Jesus has said? Do you really believe that you can experience the fullness of blessing by hearing and obeying God's word? Are you living that way? Is it evident? Are you searching out the scriptures?

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Are you taking notes in Bible study? Are you capturing the thoughts that God gives to you? The instruction that He gives so that you can put it into practice in your life? Listen, the beginning of this, it starts first of all by believing in Jesus. He, the Savior, the one that blessed Mary so much, He was born of the Virgin Mary so that He could die upon the cross for our sin.

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So that we would have the opportunity to hear Him, to repent, to turn from our sin, to believe in Jesus and receive the promise of everlasting life. To be born again by believing in Him. That's where it begins. So if you want the most blessed life, you've got to start there. And if you've not been born again, then I would encourage you, I would beg you, you need to turn to Jesus.

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to believe in Him and make that decision to follow Him, turning from sin to follow Him. That's where it starts, but that's not where it ends. We need to continue now, hearing God's Word and obeying it. Do you believe that? Do you do it? Let God continue to minister to your heart in that as we worship Him. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word.

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